1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a photographic developing apparatus for developing sensitive material after exposure of its images.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a photographic developing apparatus, the development of sensitive material (when it is one for printing such as photographic paper) is effected by successively passing it through a developing vessel, a bleaching/fixing vessel, and a rinsing vessel which constitutes a water washing and/or stabilizing vessel. When principally treating a sensitive material for photographing such as negative film or reversal film, development is effected by successively passing the material through a developing vessel, a bleaching vessel, a fixing vessel, a water washing vessel, and a stabilizing vessel, or through a developing vessel, a bleaching vessel, a bleaching/fixing vessel, a water washing vessel, and a stabilizing vessel. The developing vessel, the bleaching vessel, the fixing vessel, and the bleaching/fixing vessel are supplied with replenisher so as to compensate for any deterioration in or decrease through evaporation of the processing liquids. The resulting overflow of the processing liquid is discharged from these processing vessels.
The water washing vessel and the stabilizing vessel are also supplied with water (liquid) for the purpose of washing the developed component, as well as the component which has been bleached and fixed, away from the sensitive material, resulting in the washing water and the stabilizing liquid also being contaminated. Accordingly, these vessels are supplied with replenishing washing water or stabilizing liquid, the resulting overflow of these liquids being discharged from the vessels.
It is desirable that the amount of these waste liquids be kept as small as possible since they require a particular waste liquid disposal processing. However, it is quite difficult to reduce the waste liquid amount while maintaining a certain level of developing capacity.
A solution to this problem has been proposed by Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 57-157243 according to the disclosure of which overflow in a preliminary water washing vessel is transferred to a fixing vessel which constitutes the vessel for the preceding bath. However, stable processing cannot always be ensured solely by transferring overflow in this way since that will involve a fluctuation in the overflow amount due to evaporation, etc., which causes the composition of the bleaching/fixing liquid to fluctuate, resulting in poor desilverization, an undesirable color stain, etc.